Simple strawberry galette (free-form tart) sprinkled with cardamom, folded into a buttery crust.
We're tearing through the days of the calendar as Moving Day looms, circled in red. As if we'll forget which day the movers are due to show up. But we leave nothing to chance, as we number the boxes, color coding them pink if they stay in the Bay Area; green if they go to Tahoe. The numbers then correspond to a list that itemizes the contents of the boxes. This sounds mind numbingly organized, I admit, but I'd like to think that moving day will be so smooth, we'll hardly have to show up. But what do you want to bet it will still be, as the caterer for our wedding described his job, like riding a donkey backwards through a burning barn?
In other words, chaos.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for planning. I made a pretty good living planning projects for many years. But surprises pop up, work teams show up a man short, and the furniture you've carefully measured somehow doesn't fit into the room it's been assigned, and there's nowhere else for it to go. For the record, I'm expecting all of these things to happen. But it's all good. Downsizing for us makes a lot of sense, at least on the whiteboard of life. It's time to leave the house that's been our first home together. And honestly, I've reached the point where I'm looking forward to being on the other side of this major transition in our lives.
Last weekend, we threw a little going-away party for the house, with a group of close friends that have been part of my local family for a very long time. One of my friends, M, brought an amazing strawberry pie. I decided to make a galette version of it, since my tart and pie pans are all packed in box #206. I found the box on the list, and fleetingly thought of digging my tart pans back out, but a quick search in the garage revealed the truth. I have no idea where box #206 is. Hopefully it will turn up. Soon.
Strawberry Cardamom Galette
Ingredients
Galette Crust
- 10 ounces all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 ounces unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 3 - 4 tablespoons ice water
Strawberry Cardamom Filling
- 2 baskets fresh strawberries washed & hulled
- ½ cup fresh blueberries
- ⅓ cups coconut sugar cane sugar is fine too
- 1 ½ tablespoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon turbinado or raw sugar regular cane sugar can be substituted
Instructions
Galette Crust
- Place the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine the ingredients.
- Slice the butter into ½ tablespoon sized slices and add to the bowl of the processor all at once. Process only until the butter pieces are the size of green peas. It will be mostly crumbles at this point.
- Dump it all onto a clean workspace. Using the heel of your hand, smear the crumbles in a firm movement away from your body. Do this a few times, piling the dough together between smears. (This is a technique called fraisage, which lends to a very flakey crust). Gently massage the dough with your fingertips to form a dough. Try not to use the palm of your hand, as this warms up the butter in the dough, making it more difficult to work with.
- Add the vinegar and three tablespoons of ice water. Pulse about 10 - 12 times until the mixture sticks together when you pinch it between your fingers. Add an additional tablespoon of ice water if it's still too dry.
- Divide into 4 disks of dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes while you make the filling.
Strawberry Cardamom Filling
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice the strawberries and combine with the blueberries in a bowl. Set aside.
- Combine the sugar, corn starch, cardamom, and water in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken.
- Add the strawberries and blueberries to the thickened sugar mixture and toss to coat. Remove from the heat while you roll out the dough.
- Remove the one disk of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap, and roll out into a circle about 7 - 8 inches in diameter. Place it towards one of the corners of the baking sheet. Heap some strawberry filling in the middle. It's fine if it spreads out. Carefully fold the edges of the dough towards the middle.
- Brush a little cream on the edges of the crust and sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on top.
- Repeat with the remaining disks of dough, forming each galette on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned and the filling is bubbling.
- Serve warm.
CCU
It is defintiely challenging but a worth-it-in-the-end experience in moving my friend!
Lovely galette, mouthwatering actually! Best of luck with preparations!
Cheers
CCU
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much CCU!! Been moving and unpacking boxes all morning, and taking a BREAK now 🙂
Erika
Haha! I love your flexibility here--no tart pans? Make a galette! That last paragraph made me laugh. Truth: moving sucks. But it's good to hear that you're ready for this transition! So are you moving to Tahoe? That sounds fun!
And I'm intrigued by the sound of this. I know I have it somewhere in my cupboard but to be honest, I don't really have an idea of what cardamom tastes like. Sounds like an exotic (and delicious) combo!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
We splitting our lives between Tahoe and Mill Valley. What we hadn't planned on was moving into both the new condo and the new house in the same month. Kind of exhausting, but in a way it works so that we can more easily figure out what furniture goes to which home. And you've got to try cardamom. It' not like any other spice, but maybe falls somewhere between cinnamon and cloves, although it's not really like either. I'm sure that doesn't help LOL
Erika
Wow, that is a LOT of moving! Good luck with everything! Hahaha I enjoyed your description of cardamom 😉
apuginthekitchen
You are incredibly organized and best of luck with the move. Your galette is amazing, love the cardamom with the strawberry. It will be good when it's done right and you then have the task of unpacking and hopefully box #206 will surface then.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I will need those tart pans. To let you know just how many I have, that's ALL there is in box #206. I have a ton of pans for teaching, and of course for me 🙂
Melissa
I can't wait to harvest fresh strawberries from our plants this year. I'm planning to try my hand at making strawberry jam this year, but now I think I have another use for them, as well! 😉
I hope you will link up this wonderful recipe and others at my Foodie Friday Blog Hop at A Room for Two with a View. I know my readers would love it!
Have a fantastic Foodie Friday and a wonderful weekend!
Melissa
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Melissa! I'll definitely add to your FFB!! I love, love, love strawberry jam and make it every year to make the strawberry season go through the fall and winter for me 🙂
Sunithi
oooh , this looks so good !! The filling sounds so fruity and fresh ! Never tried making galette before . Alwasy thought it was complicated. If I do, will try this recipe !
BTW, loving coconut sugar ... the flavor, texture everything !!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Galettes are really easy. Mine aren't always exactly even all the way around, but they've gotten increasingly consistent through the years. The big thing I always have to remember is resist wanting to draw the edges over the top too much. But you'll have to practice - your daughter would enjoy playing with this too 🙂
Rosemary
ok, this looks excellent! Like your method of cooking the sugar mixture then adding the fruit. I've never done it that way.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Well this was my first time with it, in all honestly. But since I didn't find the box with my tart pans, and I was all set in my mind to do this recipe, I figured there must be a way. The nice thing I found was that I was really just cooking them long enough to brown the crust. And even though the filling was bubbly, they were a little thicker, making them much less messy to eat with my hands. Myles had one for breakfast on the run the next morning, and it was so easy to eat.
Rosemary
That's what I was thinking that then you can concentrate on getting the crust cooked just right and the berries would be nicely thickened. Yum, wish I had one for breakfast!!
TasteFood
Those berries look beautiful! Hang in there with the moving!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
If you've got some free time, swing by next week to see our new digs! And we can grab a coffee or lunch downtown MV.
Debra
I love adding cardamom to desserts. Good luck with unpacking. I am stealing the quote from your catere!
mjskit
I remember when we left our home of over 20 years, if I hadn't of label the boxes with content and location, it would have been total chaos once they reached the new place. So good for you for being organized. You'll be quite thankful once everything ends up in the right places and you find box #206. 🙂 Your galette looks delicious and I love the strawberry cardamom combo! A perfect treat for berry season!
Sika
Wow, I love the recipe. Those galettes look so delicious!
Fig & Quince
I've been away for a little while so your move is news to me. Good luck and how exciting, Tahoe is gorgeous, so it's bound to be a beautiful new chapter.
I'm partial to cardamom and have a sweet tooth, so needless so say, I am coveting these galettes. They look yum.
Mary @ Fit and Fed
Looks very healthy and I love cardamom in desserts! I'm impressed that you are baking at all with half your stuff packed up. I'm also impressed that you have 'many years of experience with galettes'-- I think I've made one, I'll have to pay attention to your tips!
María
Hi, I was wondering, could I replace all the sugar with coconut sugar? Would it still have the same sweetness and consistency? Haven't tried the recipe yet, but very excited to try it.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Coconut sugar can definitely be substituted for sugar in the crust. The filling already uses coconut sugar. It's not quite as sweet as cane sugar, but for the crust, that should be fine. I hope you like it!
María
Also! Could I use half & half instead of heavy cream? Or would that change the recipe considerably?
Thank you!